


Here to stay!

by Erika_K



Series: One-shot Collection [8]
Category: Magdalena Eriksson & Pernille Harder, Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:27:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26448544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erika_K/pseuds/Erika_K
Summary: Well, given the timing the title is pretty self-explanatory, I suppose...
Relationships: Magdalena Eriksson/Pernille Harder
Series: One-shot Collection [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1569001
Comments: 8
Kudos: 46





	Here to stay!

**Author's Note:**

> Please, let me know, what you think! So please leave comments or write to me on Tumblr (@erika---k).

**Kingston upon Thames, September 2020**

The chaos is spreading!

It propagates in its usual pattern.

It originates from Pernille’s bag and scatters from there to its surroundings. Like there is a pressure in her bag that releases in an explosion of clothes as soon as she opens the zipper.

When she arrives in the afternoon, by evening her socks are on the bedroom floor, trousers, T-shirts and sweaters on the chair in the corner, on the bed and hanging on the handles of the wardrobe.

What’s on the bed, wanders to the chair in the evening to make room for them to sleep but it certainly doesn't find its way to anywhere where it belongs.

The next morning her stuff takes over the bathroom. Underpants on the floor, a night shirt hanging on the hook that’s supposed to be for the towel. And there they stay.

Then it reaches the kitchen and living room! A jumper on the couch or slung over the chair at the kitchen table, socks - again - on the floor in front of the sofa, Pernille’s book balancing - spine up - on the backrest of the arm chair.

During the time Pernille stays also the things she uses in Magda’s apartment start to distribute. Glasses and coffee mugs on the coffee table and on her nightstand. She just puts them down where she is and there they stay.

She asks to borrow Magda’s hand cream, takes the tube in the bathroom, squeezes the cream into her hand on her way through the corridor and has reached the living room when she needs her hands free to distribute the cream. So she puts the tube on the edge of the TV stand in front of the TV. And that’s where it is until Magda puts it back at some point.

A soaking wet towel on a lawn chair in the rain that Pernille had around her hair when she came from the shower and joined Magda in the garden. And that she hung over the chair when she let her hair dry in the sun and that is still out there days later.

“It raining, don’t you want to take it inside?”

A shrug with the shoulders. “Now it’s wet anyway. It’s a towel. It should tolerate some water... It’ll dry again…”

The longer Pernille stays the more stuff ends up where it isn’t supposed to be. Books and magazines she reads, clothes, glasses, mugs and plates, whatever she uses… On the coffee table, on Pernille’s nightstand, on the table in the garden, on the shelf in the bathroom… (A plate?! Did she eat in the bathroom? Or did she actually want to take it back to the kitchen for once and realised that she had to go to the bathroom when she passed by on her way through the corridor and took the plate in with her and forgot it here? Magda has no idea, she just takes the plate and brings it back to the kitchen.)

Magda watches all of this in fascination. Her stuff never does this!

It’s not like she works on tidying up after herself. It just happens. It’s not a conscious thing, it's an automatism. She probably would have to consciously decide to leave a sock on the floor or a bra hanging on the rack beside the shower, if she ever wanted to do so.

And just as she doesn’t realise she is tidying up, Pernille doesn’t realise that she leaves stuff behind. She just overlooks the trace of clothes, dirty dishes and stuff and things she leaves after herself.

When Pernille just used to visit, Magda enjoyed all of this. It was a sign that Pernille was here and she couldn’t cause too much chaos within just a few days anyway. Magda could absolutely live with that. And Pernille collected all her stuff when she went home and Magda could return her apartment to it’s usual tidy state after Pernille had left.

When they got to know each other, Magda wondered how anyone could live like this. But she soon realised that like with almost anything her way of doing things works for her, but that other ways might just as well work for others. And Pernille’s way works for Pernille.

She doesn’t drown in her chaos. She absolutely has everything under control. While Magda tidies up continuously just the second something needs to be put away, Pernille has bigger clean up events that mostly get triggered by something. When there are no mugs left in the cupboard she walks through the apartment collecting all the mugs wherever they ended up. When she is doing laundry she collects all her scattered clothes to determine whether they should join the laundry basket or can be worn again. When she gets visitors she accepts society's standards and cleans up at least the parts of her apartment her visitors will get to see. 

Only now and again Pernille is losing stuff. There are definitely moments when she is searching for something that must be fucking here somewhere!?, but it happens by no means as often as Magda would expect it to happen. While Magdas brain has a storage device for where things are supposed to be, Pernille remembers the last place she left something. It doesn't work as well as Magdas system, Pernille is regularly searching for stuff, but after checking all the places she thinks she has seen it recently, she usually finds everything in a reasonable amount of time.

Magda just remembers one real crisis shortly after they just moved in together in Linköping and they had to get going to some sponsor event and Pernille didn’t find the earrings she wanted to wear. Magda stood at the door, while Pernille was rushing from the bathroom to the kitchen and back to the bathroom, cursing… Magda had to bite her tongue to not make a comment about that they wouldn’t be late, if Pernille just put her fucking stuff where it was supposed to be.

Magda sighed and wandered through their apartment, because she didn’t have anything else to do, ended up in their bedroom at some point and finally opened the box on Pernille’s nightstand where she kept her jewelry, 

“Aren’t these the ones you’re looking for?”

Pernille stormed into the bedroom and stared at Magda who held up her earrings.

“Yes! Where the fuck were they!?”

“In your jewelry box!”

“What? How did they get there!? I’m sure I left them in the bathroom!”

“I found them in the bathroom and put them in your jewelry box because I thought...”

“Why the fuck didn’t you say anything, you knew that I have been searching for them for twenty minutes now!?”

“I thought you had used them again afterwards and put them somewhere else again. I didn’t think that you hadn’t looked in the jewelry box yet… Because… You know… Earrings… Jewelry box...!?”

“Why would I look in the jewelry box, when I know that I left them in the bathroom?!” Pernille grabbed the earrings. “Come on now, I’ll put them in in the car!”

Yeah, Pernille’s system works pretty well if no one interferes with it and Magda learned pretty soon to never do that again. When she puts Pernille’s stuff somewhere else in the course of cleaning up, she always tells her now.

It’s hard to believe but Magda knows that what she got the last three years was just the mild version of what Pernille is really capable of.

When they were visiting each other, the host wanted to accommodate to the needs of her visitor and the guest respected the fact that this was the other’s apartment and her rules applied. So in both of their apartments they met in the middle during their visits. It was no problem for a few days. Magda tolerated more chaos and Pernille tidied up as well as she could. She might not realise on her own accord that she spreads chaos wherever she goes, but she can notice it if she consciously pays attention. So when Magda was visiting, of course she made the effort to provide Magda with the degree of tidiness she needs to feel comfortable and at least reduce the clutter.

Now there is no apartment owner and no visitor. Now this is their apartment.

The chaos might have started to spread from Pernille’s bag as it’s centre when she arrived just as it used to do, but the next day she unpacked. She’s got her space in wardrobes and on shelves now. Her stuff has intermingled with Magda’s and they pretty much use everything evenly now. So there is no pattern in the development of the chaos anymore. It is evenly distributed through the whole apartment all the time.

Also the intensity has increased. Whether it’s a conscious decision or if it just happens as Pernille settles in more and more, Magda now realises again what it means to get Pernille in full force when she’s really feeling at home!

And Magda knows this time it’s not temporarily. She doesn’t just have to live with the protein bar packagings on the shelf in front of the mirror in the corridor for a few days. Now this is a long term thing. The chaos is here to stay just as Pernille is!

And up to now Magda fucking loves it!

The dinner table that Pernille set, that she cleared of letters, magazines and other papers just enough that there is space for their plates and food. And the flood of paper that spreads over the kitchen floor, when one of the sloppy piles on the other end of the table tips over from just the little tremor when Magda cuts the bread.

The box that the grapes came in that Pernille finished two days ago and that is still standing on the coffee table. 

The game that Magda got for her birthday and that Pernille inspected to be prepared when they will find the time to play it with their teammates - the instruction on the sofa, everything else on the table, the cards spread out because Pernille wanted to get an overview… three days ago and she never packed it up again. 

Magda knows that it will start to annoy her at some point. At the latest when she trips over Pernille’s boots that she left somewhere in the middle of the corridor, she will shout at her: “Why the fuck is your stuff always lying around everywhere!?”

At some point there will also be the evening when they come home tired after a demanding training or match and Pernille will just sprawl out on the sofa but Magda can’t because there are dishes on the kitchen counter and a pile of stuff and things on the kitchen table and she just can’t leave it like that. And Pernille will get increasingly nervous and will finally bark at her to stop with that fucking rummaging and sit the fuck down because she’s driving her fucking crazy and they can do that together tomorrow but now she really needs to fucking relax!

And yes, at some point they will get into a serious fight about this and then they will try to agree on ground rules and Pernille will try to tidy up more and Magda will try to learn to live with a little more clutter and they will both struggle with that but will both do their best.

They already had many discussions about this. Pernille can explain to Magda that she doesn't like the clutter either but she can easily ignore it if it doesn't get too bad, so why should she ruin a night they could spend together on the sofa with cleaning up?

Magda explains the inner unrest that comes over her. It's not that she wants things tidy, it's that she feels an almost physical discomfort, when it's messy around her.

They both understand the other’s perspective, but they also get that they need to be able to both feel comfortable in their apartment.

They know they will fight about it again when they are in a bad mood but in general they will somehow find a balance. Which will get renegotiated occasionally, because it will keep being a topic between them as long as they live together and they both intend for that to mean from now on forever.

They found a way in Linköping and will find one again!

But up to now they are not there yet. Up to now Magda loves every dirty coffee mug on the shoe rack and every little heap of nutshells on the coffee table, because the fact that they are there, means Pernille is there!

And it’s the absolute greatest thing in the world that from now on there will always be socks and jackets and underwear and papers and dirty dishes and empty packagings of god-knows-what on the floor and on the sofa and on the table and in the bathroom and on every free surface all the time, because Pernille will not leave again!

Magda is in their bedroom getting ready and Pernille gets in. She hasn’t finished her coffee yet and holds a mug in her hand, a mug that Magda already brought from Stockholm to Linköping. Magda remembers Pernille with that exact same mug sitting at the kitchen table in Magda’s first apartment, talking about a game they had played the day before - two teammates hanging out, like they had done uncounted times before...

Or not... Because Magda was already aware that something had changed for her. 

And she remembers that warm fuzzy feeling when she realised that Pernille was clenching the mug unnecessarily tight, smiling nervously and hecticly nipping from her coffee everytime Magda looked up and and their eyes met.

And Magda remembers her shy hope slowly getting more confident, while she got increasingly more certain of why Pernille might be fidgeting like that.

“You ready?” Pernille asks. They have to go to training.

“Yes, ready to leave!”

“Great!” Pernille takes the last sip of her coffee. After a short look around she finds a free surface and puts the mug on the little space in front of the books on the book shelf. “Then let’s go!”

She turns around and leaves the room. 

Magda follows her into the corridor. “Your car?”

Pernille nods. She doesn’t even look at the keyholder beside the door where only Magda’s keys are hanging. She looks up at the ceiling, concentrating for a second.

Magda retraces her step in her mind with her.

Pernille carried the bag with their groceries into the kitchen last night when they came home, probably still holding her keys in hand, needing to get her hands free when she started to unpack…

Pernille walks purposefully to the kitchen, opens the cupboard where they keep their dry goods, taking her key from the lowest shelf...

Yeah, sure… Where else would it be?!

She smiles at Magda when she walks past her, realising that Magda isn’t following her when she’s already out the door, turning around.

“You coming?”

Magda just looks at her smilingly.

Pernille smiles back a little confused. “What is it?”

“I fucking love you!”

After a moment of puzzlement - not by this anew declaration of an already well established fact obviously but by the unexpected timing - Pernille’s smile brightens.

“I love you, too!”

There is not much more to say, so they don’t.

Magda hugs Pernille on the way to the car and kisses her. And she knows that never again there will be weeks in a row where she can’t do this!

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to hear what you think! So please leave comments or write to me on Tumblr (@erika---k).


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